Ideas for Mobile Apps: Where to Get Them and How to Generate Start-up Ideas

The world of mobile applications is huge and diverse because there are plenty of start-ups and mobile app ideas. There is a massive variety of mobile apps, from functional to entertaining and from greatly in demand to completely useless. However, these are all the product of someone’s idea. Some of them become successful, while some of them lie on the last shelves of virtual app stores, but all of them are the manifestation of ideas.

It is very difficult to have a good idea, realize it, and develop a successful application. Not everyone succeeds. Some people take a lot of time to come up with at least one worthwhile idea, while other ideas swarm like flies while most of them are useless. Fortunately, there are those lucky people who manage to generate first-class ideas and implement them.

Believe me, this chance is given to everyone; you just need to turn your thoughts in the right direction. Now, let’s figure out how to do that and how to find an idea for a mobile application that will attract the attention of millions of users while becoming indispensable.

Where to Get Mobile App Ideas

So let’s figure out where you can get useful information that will move your thoughts in the right direction!

Problems and Solutions

Anything ingenious is simple. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Concentrate on your everyday problems and on the actual problems of people around you or in some particular category. The best way to come up with something necessary and in demand is to offer a solution to an actual problem. Try to find a solution to this daily problem that will make it less of an issue. If you succeed in finding a solution, think about whether this solution can be implemented in a mobile application. Finally, ask yourself how many people other than you have the same problem. Bingo!

This is a very effective approach that allows us to look at familiar things with fresh eyes. It is much easier to solve an existing problem than to come up with a completely new one and look for possible solutions.

An excellent example of this technique is the Canvsly application, which was created to save children’s drawings.

The awareness of pain points in your life is critical to developing new ideas. You can correct the problems you and other people face on a regular basis.

Improve upon Existing Applications

Sometimes even existing solutions cannot fully solve certain problems. In this case, we’re talking about applications. Have you ever encountered products that could still be improved upon?

In fact, this approach is used by more developers than you might imagine. One example of this is the Uber application. Once this was a simple idea to create an application for a taxi, but it has now turned into a company worth more than $60 billion. The creators did not invent anything new and didn’t force people to do something they didn’t do before. They simply improved upon an idea that already existed.

It’s not easy, but it has an advantage because users will readily accept it.

It’s good if you can say about your application, “It’s like XXXX but better!” Bingo!

Market Research and Statistics

How long have you been interested in what applications are the best on the market? How long have you looked at statistics of which categories of mobile applications are the most popular?

It is important not only to look at what interests users now and to understand relevant trends but to also try to predict the behavior of people based on statistics of the past. Furthermore, it is important to understand what attracted users to top-end applications. For this, it is useful to study their functions.

In addition to charts, diagrams, and ratings, you can independently conduct a marketing study. This is how the application Kiip was born. The creator simply watched the passengers of a plane during his journey.

Your marketing research can be just as simple. You can observe others, interview your friends, or even use social media to conduct a survey. Moreover, this same audience can later become your helpers in testing and improving the application.

Conducting research is useful, even if the idea for a mobile application already exists.

Brainstorm

There is a lot of controversy surrounding this method. Some argue that this is not an effective way to develop ideas, but I also know that the correct use of this method can bring positive results. Brainstorming creates amazing ideas and should not be ignored, but to make the process more effective, try the following techniques:

Visualization: This will help you think within the context you’ve chosen. Even simple photos of an object will help. This is a type of anchor that will change the direction of your thoughts.

The worst decisions: Try to generate and fix of as many bad ideas for mobile applications as possible, and then try to turn these terrible ideas into good ones. This method can be quite productive.

Assumptions – These allow us to think outside the box. The problem is that it can be difficult for us to go beyond our own judgments. As soon as we start thinking outside the box, we criticize our own ideas. Ask yourself a series of questions: What application do I want to make? Why do I want to make it? Why will it become successful? Why am I ready to do it? In this way, you will reveal the pitfalls before they appear in real life, and you can more adequately assess the value of your idea.

Online Ideas

Finally, the easiest way to find an idea for a mobile application is to make sure it will appeal to the worldwide network. This is an inexhaustible mine of ideas and inspiration. There are hundreds of thousands of app ideas generated by other people. Ideas can be found on such resources as:

As a rule, these are completely unplanned ideas, some of which may seem absurd and not worthwhile, but unequivocally, this source should not be ignored, since you can find something worthwhile in this mountain of data.

Innovations and Innovative Technologies

Innovative technologies in and of themselves are composed of new ideas. This area is perpetually evolving, and many devices are actually experimental in some ways. Developing mobile applications for such devices is a huge opportunity. There are many unsuccessful projects that can be taken as the basis for implementing improved applications.

How to Generate a Mobile App Idea

In practice, the problem is often not where to get the idea. In fact, it’s no secret to anyone that the concept for a future application begins to form in your head. You can see this easily from the previous section.

The main problem is how to get yourself to think in the right direction. The development of ideas is an art. They do not come randomly.

I hope that my advice will help you get into the right mindset for idea generation.

Observe

Every day, watch the world around you, and pay attention to what is happening in your own life. The emotions and behaviors you observe in the people around you can lead you to unexpected thoughts. Why are people annoyed at the bus stop? An app announcing when the next bus arrives could make their life better in those moments.

Believe in Your Ideas

This can be very difficult as we tend to criticize our own ideas and decisions. It’s a fact that each of us has several basic, important ideas, but under constant criticism, they will remain unrealized.

Believe in yourself! Let time determine whether it was a worthwhile idea or not. If you don’t realize an idea, you will never get the confidence or success you desire.

Make Your Subconscious Work

Instead of straining your mind, try to address your subconscious mind. Once again, consider all the nuances, write down possible solutions, and then…release. Stop thinking about it. Go work out, cook a meal, listen to music, or do any other activity that relaxes you.

Your subconscious mind will not finish working until it finds the right solution. By the way, this is best done at night while you sleep. So go get some rest!

Note Your Ideas

There is no such thing as a bad idea. Try to write down all your ideas that you think of in a day. Better yet, arrange a competition with yourself. Put pressure on yourself to come up with X ideas, and write them all down. To your surprise, among the many solutions, you will likely find some truly brilliant ideas.

Relax

Stress is ineffective. You can only succeed and think clearly when you are calm. Have you ever noticed that when you take a shower, you tend to get brilliant ideas? So relax!

Plunge into the Environment

Ideas are the end products of what already exists in our minds. They do not appear from nowhere. To advance ideas is to understand a certain process or problem. Plunging into the relevant environment will help you find blogs, publications, and speeches of reputable people that can help you in your journey.

In Conclusion

I hope you find these recommendations useful and interesting. Perhaps you will use these recommendations to approach the process of generating brilliant ideas. If you do that, you won’t have to wait long to see positive results!